Michael Suk-Young Chwe
Autor(a) de Jane Austen, Game Theorist
About the Author
Michael Suk-Young Chwe is associate professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Jane Austen, Game Theorist (Princeton).
Obras por Michael Suk-Young Chwe
Rational ritual 1 exemplar
Rational ritual 1 exemplar
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Sexo
- male
Membros
Críticas
Listas
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Estatísticas
- Obras
- 4
- Membros
- 192
- Popularidade
- #113,797
- Avaliação
- 3.2
- Críticas
- 4
- ISBN
- 12
With this title, you might think you were in for a parody like Pride and Prejudice and Vampires. But no. In Jane Austen, Game Theorist, Michael Suk-Young, a political scientist from the University of California, offers a serious work of literary criticism applying game theory to the analysis of Austen’s novels. In Austen’s novels, the word “stratagem” usually describes the plans of less admirable characters, but as Suk-Young Chwe points out, her heroines tend to be those who pay clearest attention to the goals and strategies of others. They have a quality Austen calls “penetration,” which means the ability to see into the intentions and feelings of others. Emma is a heroine who overestimates her own abilities in this regard. Fanny Price of Mansfield Park improves her gaming skills as she grows up. The most fascinating analysis here deals with characters who are in one way or another “clueless,” with no insight into what others are up to. Most of the time, not understanding your opponent is a disadvantage in gaming, but not always. In Northanger Abbey, cluelessness works to the heroine’s advantage because her cluelessness makes her unpredictable and able to avoid traps into which more insightful women might fall. Suk-Young Chwe points out that many of Austen’s minor characters are amateurs at gamesmanship. Characters like Mr. Collins of Pride and Prejudice and John Dashwood think of themselves as shrewd social operatives, but they depend on social rules and rank to tell them how to act. The more expert gamers are more able to think autonomously and know when the rules can be bent. Suk-Young Chwe assumes his audience knows nothing about game theory (in my case a good assumption) and has never read Austen. Sometimes the argument gets lost in the plot summaries that follow from this assumption. 4 stars.… (mais)